The Tigers escaped with the win, but the bullpen's late-inning meltdown seemingly marred the team's postgame celebration.

Instead of touting Torii Hunter's five-RBI game and Rick Porcello's near-perfect start, the majority of questions manager Brad Ausmus encountered in his postgame press conference focussed on his level of concern about the team's bullpen.

And for good reason. The bullpen has looked shaky this past week. And on Saturday, it looked particularly terrible.

"No excuses, we definitely need to get a little more sharp," Tigers closer Joe Nathan said. "But the good thing is that we will."

That remains to be seen.

Making his season debut, Phil Coke was promptly greeted to two straight hits in the ninth, including an RBI triple off the bat of Adam Jones. Nick Markakis followed with an RBI groundout to make it 7-3 before J.J. Hardy drew a one-out walk, which led to Coke's exit.

Looking back, Ausmus said he wouldn't have changed anything. He wanted to get Coke on the mound to face a couple left-handed hitters and figured the ninth inning would serve as a low-pressure situation. But it quickly turned into a high-pressure one.

With Hardy on first, Ausmus decided to bring in Al Alburquerque to face Matt Wieters. Alburquerque made a quality pitch and induced a popup, but it fell in shallow left, putting runners on first and second with only one out.

Just like that, the Tigers' six-run lead had suddently turned into a save situation.

"It didn't go as planned, that's for sure," Ausmus said. "You generally hope that in a six-run lead that it doesn't end up being that close."

Trailing 7-4, the Orioles charged back to pull within one run of the Tigers, but -- perhaps most concerning -- they did it against Nathan, who is arguably the only permanent fixture in the Tigers' bullpen right now.

The Tigers invested heavily in Nathan this offseason, signing him to a two-year, $20 million deal, in an effort to address their closer role.

Entering this season, there was little concern about whether he could handle the job. But his less-than-mediocre spring, coupled with his season debut Monday and the slight drop in velocity with his fastball, have some questioning whether he was beginning to regress.

Those concerns seemed to only heighten Saturday following a second straight shaky outing.

"It's about being comfortable and getting used to everything," outfielder Torii Hunter said. "(Nathan) is still trying to get used to all that stuff, and once he does, trust me, he's going to be fine."

Nathan got the final two outs to record his first save this season, but not before he gave up an RBI single to ex-Tiger Steve Lombardozzi and a two-run double to Steve Clevenger.

What began as a six-run lead in the ninth inning, quickly turned to a one-run lead with the go-ahead run on first base and only one out for the Orioles.

"I've got no doubt that (the relievers) are going to get better and better," Nathan said. "Like I said, we're 4-0 when we're not pitching at our best, so I can't wait until we do."

For now, it appears the Tigers can still win with a questionable bullpen. But, the question remains: Will the bullpen improve? And, if not, can the Tigers continue to win with a less-than-stellar bullpen?

"The truth is, we ended up being able to hang on," Ausmus said. "Every team goes through a few games like this through the course of the year. But I'm hoping we don't have too many."